James Rickards is the Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a financial newsletter, and Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital. He is the author of The New Case for Gold (April 2016), and two New York Times best sellers, The...

Opportunities for the two countries to cooperate on infrastructure, says Carlos Dominguez.
The Philippines' new government plans to court Chinese investment to fund an ambitious infrastructure programme, the latest sign of warming ties between the two nations that have been at loggerheads over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
“The...

Jean-Paul Pougala’s April 14, 2011 piece in Pambazuka News titled “The Lies Behind the West’s War on Libya” describes how Africa first developed its own transcontinental communications system by purchasing a telecommunications satellite on December 26, 2007: the African Development Bank ponied up $50 million toward the nearly $400...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethi­o­pia — The sleek, white train glides through the hilly Ethiopian countryside, the first to travel this route in nearly a decade.
The contrast is stark as the new, Chinese-made electric train passes horse-drawn carriages, oxen hauling plows and crowds of curious village children. But soon it crosses...

Over Labor Day weekend, the leaders of the G-20 countries gathered in Hangzhou, China, for their annual summit. Their goal this year: save the good name of globalization, which has recently taken a beating. In the wake of Brexit, the U.S. Republican presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, the rise...

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, (IFR) - China is pushing for a landmark offering of bonds denominated in Special Drawing Rights, the International Monetary Fund's synthetic reserve currency, ahead of the renminbi's official entry into the SDR basket in October.
The World Bank and China Development Bank are actively preparing to issue SDR...

Using the balance sheet to promote stability and scrapping the zero lower bound are among the fresh ideas.
Another Jackson Hole economic symposium has come and gone. Fed Up, a group that's pushing for lower rates and asking the Fed to pay more attention to minorities and workers, is thrilled...

The Chairman of the China Gold Association and General Manager and Party Committee Secretary of China National Gold Group Corporation, the latter being China's largest gold mining enterprise, is Song Xin and happens to be one of my favorite commentators in China. This gentleman made waves in July 2014...

This is the first step toward one world currency.
They promised, they delivered. The World Bank will issue a $2.8 billion SDR bond, or Special Drawing Rights bond, in China in August. Separately, the China Development Bank will also issue between $300 million and $800 million of SDR notes.
China, the...

In this extract from his new book, the Nobel prize-winning economist argues that if the euro is not radically rethought, Europe could be condemned to decades of broken dreams.
Europe, the source of the Enlightenment, the birthplace of modern science, is in crisis. This part of the world, which hosted...

The decision by U.K. voters to leave the EU is such a glaring repudiation of the wisdom and relevance of elite political and media institutions that — for once — their failures have become a prominent part of the storyline. Media reaction to the Brexit vote falls into two general categories: (1) earnest, candid attempts...

May's soggy Chinese trade data offered the latest sign that the world's second-largest economy was still a long way off from full health.
Exports in dollar-denominated terms tanked 4.1 percent on-year, more than double April's 1.8 percent fall and slightly worse than estimates for a 3.6 percent decline, Reuters said...

As the suspension of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and corruption allegations loom in the background, a new appointment was announced: Ilan Goldfein, who was chief economist to Brazil’s largest private bank, will become president of the country’s largest bank.
Haifa-born Ilan Goldfein was appointed on Thursday to be the president...

Today Nomi Prins, who last year addressed the Federal Reserve, IMF and World Bank, revealed a shocking private conversation about the Fed’s manipulation of the world.
Eric King: “Nomi, you just took a trip to South America, can you talk about what unfolded?”
Nomi Prins: “I went to four of the...

Chachengwa had been growing maize and cotton here her whole life. Every year, she took out loans for seeds and fertilizer, and then paid them back with her harvest. Since she lost her husband, she had relied on her two daughters and eight grandchildren to help tend her 75-acre plot.

And that’s setting off a dramatic shift in the economic balance of power on the continent.
Africa's petrostates are crashing hard. A cool $115 in the summer of 2014, a barrel of Brent crude, the international pricing benchmark, now fetches below $40. And having failed to build massive foreign exchange...

India has set an ambitious target of having 100 GW solar power generation capacity by 2022 under the National Solar Mission.
India has sought $500 million from the newly created, China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for solar power projects.
"We have applied for $500 million funding from AIIB. Besides, $1...

Smartmatic Group, an electronic voting firm whose worldwide headquarters is located in the United Kingdom, will be running the online balloting process in the Utah Republican Open Caucuses on Tuesday.
The chairman of Smartmatic’s board, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, currently serves on the board of George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and...

What can we learn from the Vietnamese, Cuban, Rwandan, and Syrian refugees crisis?
As Syrian refugees started to reach the European continent, discussions about the “influx of migrants” dominated media outlets, with very little attention paid to the crisis of the refugees instead of the “refugees crisis.”
Some cite national security...

The real crisis is not the influx of refugees to Europe per se but a toxic combination of destabilising foreign policy agendas, economic austerity and the rise of right-wing nationalism, which is likely to push the world further into social and political chaos in the months ahead.
Razor-wire fences, detention...

BEIRUT - A Lebanese parliamentary delegation met in Washington on Feb. 23-27 with numerous members of Congress, administration officials and various lobbies to discuss the potential consequences for Lebanon of the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015.
The act, which US President Barack Obama signed into law Dec. 18, authorizes the president to apply sanctions...

China is making its biggest bet ever on Latin America, just as the United States is turning its back.
China poured billions of dollars into Latin America in 2015.
Chinese banks sent nearly $30 billion in loans to Latin American governments last year, more than double the amount from 2014. It's...

In the area of finance and creation of new financial institutions much hope of many nations has been placed on China. Last year China played a catalytic role in helping establish a new BRICS Infrastructure Development Bank to finance infrastructure projects in select emerging economies. Soon after Beijing announced...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD): The funds will be used to construct and operate a bulk-liquids terminal.
A US$ 341 million facility to Sonker, an Egyptian company providing hydrocarbon storage and bunkering, will support a significant upgrade of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure and will contribute...

A special investigation into the diplomacy of doing business abroad.
One of Europe’s poorest countries wanted a road, so U.S. mega-contractor Bechtel sold it a $1.3 billion highway, with the backing of a powerful American ambassador. Funny thing is, the highway is barely being used—and the ambassador is now working...

Slightly more than seven decades ago, when the United Nations was officially founded in San Francisco, there was no question in the world about who was the Great Power, the World Hegemon. Today the situation has radically altered to the severe disadvantage of Washington and her ability to dictate...

A glut of oil, the demise of Opec and weakening global demand combined to make 2015 the year of crashing oil prices. The cost of crude fell to levels not seen for 11 years – and the decline may have further to go.
There have been four sharp increases in...

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been formally established.
The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), viewed by some as a rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was formally established on Friday, according to a statement issued by Beijing.
The United States and Japan - the world's...

The nightmare scenario of U.S. geopolitical strategists seems to be coming true: foreign economic independence from U.S. control. Instead of privatizing and neoliberalizing the world under U.S.-centered financial planning and ownership, the Russian and Chinese governments are investing in neighboring economies on terms that cement Eurasian economic integration on...